#1: E. Lilian Todd, the First Woman to Build and Pilot an Aircraft, 1909
Nothing says nostalgia quite like a photo of a woman flying a plane. We all know that planes are ancient inventions that symbolize the olden days, especially when piloted by women,
whose historical role in doing all sorts of things men weren’t allowed to do yet is well-documented.
I’m kidding, of course, but the truth is that we really get a sense of the history when viewing old technologies.
Something about seeing to what point society had advanced really allows us to mark a particular period in time. And this is E. Lilian Todd, the first woman to invent and pilot her aircraft in 1909.
#2: A Child Enjoying the Simple Things, 1920s
When I think of olden times, I think of simpler times. I imagine people had all sorts of skills and abilities that we modern folks seem to have forgotten, spanning the full
range of human activity from churning butter to mastering the banjo at age two. People [and children] then were just way more capable.
Of course, this child may be merely, in fact, holding the banjo and mimicking a different artist’s strum while having no ability at all to produce coherent sounds from the instrument. But I prefer to keep on believing that
this little maestro was trying out one of his many original tunes on his beloved pet.
